Japan to cut suicides...

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http://www.bigpond.com/news/breaking/co ... 087281.asp

The reason why I took note of this was what I had read in You Only Live Twice, (the novel, not the film) about suicide in Japan.

Personally, I think a good chunk of it is cultural, and offering counselling may help some cases, but I'm not sure it'll get the 20% reduction that the Japanese government want.

according to a documentary i saw, some suicides in japan are due to the mentality among Japanese men have that u are not supposed to show negative emotions which is why lots of young men kill themselves, school kids do it because of the pressure put on them by everyone to succeed

there is the samarai mentality that it is better to die then face defeat.
so i would say about 90% is to do with culture but counseling would help a bit.

I think it's just stress from the culture. Yes, men are rather encouraged to not show emotion, but they are also under high pressure to be as successful as possible in a highly competitive society.

Ya, jeeze I doubt they will reduce it by 20%. Its hard to change hundreds of years of culture very quickly. It will be interesting to see what the future brings of course. I must say that aspies over their must have it sooo hard tho, living in such crowded conditions, no escape from people, I wonder what the suicide rate is for people with mental disorders is, I am willing to bet a good chunk of suicides is from people with mental issues and im not sure about the japanese economy today, but not to long ago, particularly in the 90's the japanese economy was in recession and particularly men who could not provide for their families resorted to suicide apparently because they dishonored their family.

Very intersting society, and im very happy to not have to live over their.

Interesting that they're not willing to elaborate on how they plan to cut suicides - maybe by re-classifying as many of them as possible as accidents?

Paul Theroux, in his acrimonious travel book The Happy Isles of Oceania: Paddling the Pacific, refers to the phenomenon of Japanese brides on honeymoon in Hawaii stepping off their hotel balconies when they learn what is expected of them in the way of marital duties.

Theroux left the question hanging (oops) but one assumes the latter.

Well, the idea that suicide won't get you into heaven has not been inculcated into the Japanese culture. I must say I have often found suicide attractive, myself. Sometimes I fantisize of having cancer or some other sort of terminal disease so I can relax and not have to think about when my retirement funds runs out at age 67.

Merle